The postings below were taken from an online forum on social isolation and digital technology, according to the american life studies.
Participant
Bob
Livingstone
Posting
Is the quality of the technological communication as rich or fulfilling as face to face discussion? Is there any discussion about the differences between the two? So, we’re left with the facts that social isolation has increased greatly in the last 20 years and that a huge drop in neighbor relations is perhaps the leading reason for this trend. In addition, people spend a great deal more time consuming digital technology than they did decades ago. We can let the researchers quibble over whether technology has caused the social isolation problem.
Participant
Michael
Wood-Lewis
Posting
Personally, I see current digital technologies as contributing to the death of our neighborhoods. Our children are growing up in neighborhoods that are far less socially active than they were decades ago. Neighbor relations are absolutely crucial for children, I would argue, because only in their neighborhoods might parents be willing to afford their children some measure of autonomy. If we agree that we should place special value on neighborhood relations, as opposed to social relations in general, the results from all these studies are quite troubling.
Participant
Po Bronson
Posting
Lots of my friends have social media networks or listservs for their immediate neighborhood. (I wish I did, will work on it.) Wouldn’t it help for social network technology to unite families in neighborhoods, to bring them together? Can you recommend sites that help to get a neighborhood talking again?
playborhood.com
In his posting, Po Bronson asks forum participants for help.
This help consists of:
